Questionable Interventions: The Enduring Myth of Laissez-Faire

Abstract

The aftermath of the global financial crisis that began in 2007 in the United States and has yet to end has demonstrated the durability of policies and analytical frameworks that have characterised the neoliberal era. Among these has been a strong rhetorical commitment to market-based institutions as synonymous with individual freedom, in contradistinction to the inefficient, bureaucratic state. This has disguised what amounts to a reconfiguration of state power during the last 40 years, such that it is arguably more pervasive than during the preceding Keynesian era. The books under review here each reveal the ideological character of laissez-faire while in various ways hinting at its mythological properties. This mythical aspect is most prominently displayed by Edmund Phelps’ treatment of ‘corporatism’ as responsible for our current ills, when it is in fact integral to contemporary political economy, and cannot be otherwise, absent truly revolutionary change. Cahill D (2014) The End of Laissez-Faire? On the Durability of Embedded Neoliberalism. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Phelps E (2013) Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Van Apeldoorn B, de Graaff N and Overbeek H (eds) (2014) The State-Capital Nexus in the Global Crisis. London: Routledge. Weiss L (2014) America Inc.? Innovation and Enterprise in the National Security State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.